Florida’s Dark Chapters: The Violent, Unsavory and Sometimes Bizarre History of the Sunshine State

Anyone who has ever traveled to Florida immediately assumes they’ve got the state figured out. It usually involves the common tropes we see splashed across news and social media: Disney, Miami, alligators, heat, retirees and weird people. As a result, very few people try to dig any deeper.

This book explores the darkest parts of Florida’s past. These stories, told out in sequential order and broken down by theme, contain everything that has come to make up the Sunshine State: from the surprising, to the weird, to the horrifying, and, in some cases, inspiring. Topics covered include Florida in the Age of Exploration, pirates, Spanish colonialism, the Seminole Wars, slavery and race relations during the Civil War, Prohibition, segregation, disco and drugs, serial killers, economic ruin, urbanism, and Florida in the age of DeSantis.

Michael G. Hall is the executive director for the Augusta Downtown Alliance, a nonprofit affiliated with the Main Street America program, a subsidiary of the National Trust focused on economic development, marketing, community engagement, and art. His experience includes his on-site work with Historic Scotland, English Heritage, Sons of the American Revolution, and UNESCO World Heritage.